dieseldog999:
though i suspect they may be a bit different to “normal drivers”.
when they replied to your hows your weekend question with " we found a great beach and a nice cafe" then that would translate into " we found a pub and a knocking shop" .or do their repective w.a.g.s. also peek in here to check up on them?
I can’t comment on their normality in case I end up in court… and what they do in their own time is not down to me.
albion:
dieseldog999:
though i suspect they may be a bit different to “normal drivers”.
when they replied to your hows your weekend question with " we found a great beach and a nice cafe" then that would translate into " we found a pub and a knocking shop" .or do their repective w.a.g.s. also peek in here to check up on them?I can’t comment on their normality in case I end up in court… and what they do in their own time is not down to me.
Took some nice pictures though.
Juddian:
And yes i can see your reasoning, University is ridiculously oversubscribed now and its become a money making machine, and there are thousands of youngsters who would be far better off getting out there and learning a trade that is more or less timeproof, ie plumbing and electronics/electrical, and by the time they’re 21 can be earning good money without a 5 figure debt hanging round their neck…plus they’ll have seen life and not been subject to further indoctrination by left over lefties who themselves have never had a real job, stuck in a a safe space zone where applause is now so passe and juggling or summat is the new in thing
Personally I reckon you’d get shafted any way you go about it. The only reason the skilled manual trades are holding up in wages for experienced guys, and new entrants have a chance, is precisely because they are so relatively unpopular. If everyone suddenly decided to become a plumber, the bottom would fall out and it’d become even more casualised.
Plumbers I know earn an alright crack, and I know a gas fitter who maneouvered into earning £60k a year later on in his career as self-employed doing a lot of hours and 24hr callout, but they’re not earning the sort of excesses that would make you think the market was short of people.
The fella on £60k acknowledged that he was lucky to get an exclusive repair contract with a manufacturer - and by “lucky” what I mean is those contracts are far fewer in number than the number of local guys who do gas work and who would like such a contract. Unfortunately he keeled over with a heart condition at 51 years old.
They’re just earning a reasonable income relative to what you’d expect for the level of skill and experience, the hours worked, and the fact that they don’t enjoy any job security.
Rjan:
Juddian:
And yes i can see your reasoning, University is ridiculously oversubscribed now and its become a money making machine, and there are thousands of youngsters who would be far better off getting out there and learning a trade that is more or less timeproof, ie plumbing and electronics/electrical, and by the time they’re 21 can be earning good money without a 5 figure debt hanging round their neck…plus they’ll have seen life and not been subject to further indoctrination by left over lefties who themselves have never had a real job, stuck in a a safe space zone where applause is now so passe and juggling or summat is the new in thingPersonally I reckon you’d get shafted any way you go about it. The only reason the skilled manual trades are holding up in wages for experienced guys, and new entrants have a chance, is precisely because they are so relatively unpopular. If everyone suddenly decided to become a plumber, the bottom would fall out and it’d become even more casualised.
Plumbers I know earn an alright crack, and I know a gas fitter who maneouvered into earning £60k a year later on in his career as self-employed doing a lot of hours and 24hr callout, but they’re not earning the sort of excesses that would make you think the market was short of people.
The fella on £60k acknowledged that he was lucky to get an exclusive repair contract with a manufacturer - and by “lucky” what I mean is those contracts are far fewer in number than the number of local guys who do gas work and who would like such a contract. Unfortunately he keeled over with a heart condition at 51 years old.
They’re just earning a reasonable income relative to what you’d expect for the level of skill and experience, the hours worked, and the fact that they don’t enjoy any job security.
Well, i’d give them the credit of having the nous to specialise or diversify (just like any sensible truckie would 
to get away from the usual underpaid crap out there on general), ie looking for an angle where a business opportunity is growing.
Lets take the electronics guy, have you noticed how many new cars are now fitted with LED lights, scrolling indicators, you name it, when these far too camp things go wrong the costs to replace are ridiculous…ie Jag XF front led indicator fails, that’ll be £1100 for a new headlight sir…now if electronic bloke can fix that for £200 i know if i was daft enough to own such a car who i’d be calling.
That’s only one small example, it’s a side i tried to get into after i was made redundant for the second time within 3 months in 1981 (another mini recession), but being as i hadn’t been on the dole for 12 months continually, no courses for me, they only wanted to throw money at people who didn’t want to work, see some things never change.
The manual trades are holding up because too many of our youngsters have been let down and haven’t been raised with realistic expectations (eg all cannot be the boss or an appratchik telling other how they should live), cajoled by pushy parents and teachers and wooed by the pyramid selling techniques and glossy prospectus of Universities, where the reality is that there will always be more indians than chiefs (well it will return to that natural balance in short order be assured), so being a skilled indian in a job that can’t be replaced by a robot makes a lot more sense than what is happening now.
The country is fast closing on £2 Trillion of national debt now and we are heading for a downturn that will dwarf (is that an allowed word these days 
) the 2008 bankers fiddle, and the non jobs where you sit around a table pontificating with other air heads that these poor bloody saps have been on the edukashun production line hoping for are going to bloody vanish like a will o’ the wisp.
Wow, thanks for all the replies folks! Plenty of food for thought. Gotta say though, the last parargraph from the last post nails it for me. Juddian has it spot-on there.
Simple answer most days I enjoy what I do, get to go to nice places round Europe and I get well paid.
However if the present type of work went ■■■■ up, I don’t know if I’d want to drive round the UK especially doing RDC type work, I hated it before and from what I read on here I don’t think its got better.
I have done other jobs, but never really liked going to the same place each day and sitting in the same office listening to the same people day in day out. Even went to college for 2 years to get an HND. But after a couple of years working in IT found it wasn’t for me and hardly earned big bucks, especially considering I’d spent 2 years out of full-time work to get the qualification.
My son who now in his late twenties is not a driver didn’t go to university earns nearly as much as me for a simple Monday - Friday mainly 9-5 nearly does overtime as he don’t want to some of his mates earn more ok they did go to university & do masters decree has a good life ok has now moved back home after living in Edinburgh for 7 years
Do I still enjoy the job yep suppose I do most of the time have a good gig mind decent boss decent kit never pushed for hours very rear do I do 15 mostly 12 hour days ok I am away all week but that also suits me
If was in my twenties now would I still do it probably not as a mate of mine works 3-4 moths a year & earns more than me so would look into doing that
I chucked it all in on April 13th this year…Made some life changing decisions and purchases and suffered some medical problems that allowed me to reassess my life.
I went back driving, as I had a phone call asking if I was available to help out…That was 4 weeks ago.
The gig was easy as, bulker up to S`borough(You probably now know where) All went well for the 4 weeks, then this week, they changed the goal posts, for no good reason…Really, knowing how it all works, no good reason, other than a manager being a munktunk at the delivery point.
I was treated all of a sudden, like a driver again…I then went into the facility and read their “Social Policy” what a load of old betty swallocks that is.
I chucked it all in again…I am a human being, I am not a diva, I believe in mutual respect, honour and integrity, once these qualities are dispensed with, then I am out of it…Quite why so many drivers are willing to be treated like mugs is beyond me…Humans are so past their sell by date, I have to question why they even exist.
mmm …some good posts here., myself im coming to an end of driving for a living its now something I do for 8months a year…camp job on highway work then back home and haul agg into local concrete plant then off work for winter ,a nice holiday in Mazatlán…and this yr(well may ) back to visit my mum for her 80th as she cant come to us. Driving s the only job ive had since I was 21 now coming 59 I used to be mad for miles but now its just a way to pay the bills. Big changes coming next yr as the camp job ive had has come to an end due to gov cuts and I don’t want to go back on distance again as I think ive done my time and TBH its not the same now as it used to be 10yrs ago the fun if you could call it that has gone,that and the pay by mile lark ,I will stick to hr paid on 12hr days and home at night with no wkend work( this is the same job I did for 6 yrs before the company sold off its artics and I went with “my truck” to my present company). A company uk pension plus (starts at 60yrs) the wage I earn on the tippers plus the wifes job with healthcare benefits lets us ,well me slow down a bit . 
I think some of you can’t see the forest for the trees. The health and lifestyle for a truck driver is terrible! They all die young, mortality rates for HGV driver at work is sky high! and who cares what you earn? you almost work two jobs! any other trade who nighted out earns a lot more than 600! they even stay in hotels and get free meals. Not tin pan ■■■■-stained ■■■■■■ loo’s and lay bys. the trucks are ■■■■■ too, they don’t even have the decency to give us DAB radios or a USB port.
I’m thirty and have been driving since I was 25 and for all the stress and paperwork and random nonsensical hoops to jump through at ever depot and RDC! rude transport staff, always asking you to do just one more? as if working overtime is part of the job? I honestly think its the worst job going.
I only drive to supplement my studies and I’ve gone back to uni to study psychology. it is not real debt before you all start and I may earn less afterwards however, what does it matter when the standard of work will be better? i spent years trying to retrade, do an apprenticeship, I even did a night course how to weld, the truth is even at 25 no one wants to give you a chance and uni was my only way out.
jimknaggs8:
I only drive to supplement my studies and I’ve gone back to uni to study psychology.
jimknaggs8:
I’ve gone back to uni to study psychology…
Perhaps to better examine the heads of those who choose to enter this game?
I enjoy driving. I actually like it on a motorbike and a car as well. I enjoy going to new places. And I enjoy the sense of achievement in terms of becoming more competant and a sense of personal development (how you will all laugh - but the first tight goodside, then blindside etc…).
If you are able to chill out and ignore the white noise (why did you stop for 6 minutes etc) it’s actually a pretty relaxed job. And it isn’t as badly paid as many on here make out. A decent driver will make around 40k a year before tax without too much trouble. Whilst it’s changing you still have a lot of freedom and lack of hastle once you leave the yard (generally - I’m not talking about the firms I’ve agencied at which want to know why you idles for 32 seconds or braked harshly when the traffic lights went to red).
Driving is either shockingly bad or surprisingly pleasant depending on how you approach it and where you are working. At first it’s like a roller coaster - total amazment and terror (I have to take a break and I’m not sure if I can park in the services etc) but after that it should be very relaxed. With todays tech drivers have never had it so good (from some perspectives). You can download e books and educate yourself whilst working. You can be warm and comfortable. The biggest hastle is usually having to wait - decent headphones, loads of data and a kindle will keep most folks entertained.
Juddian:
Rjan:
[…]Well, i’d give them the credit of having the nous to specialise or diversify (just like any sensible truckie would
I forgot to reply to this at the time!
The truth is he wasn’t a particular specialist - he was doing work of the kind that all gas men are essentially able to do.
As I say, he worked harder than most would be willing to, was latterly paid only a realistic amount for a skilled man in business on his own account and on 24/7 call, and died suddenly and pitifully young of a heart condition that was probably precipitated far sooner by his working lifestyle.
The manual trades are holding up because too many of our youngsters have been let down and haven’t been raised with realistic expectations (eg all cannot be the boss or an appratchik telling other how they should live), cajoled by pushy parents and teachers and wooed by the pyramid selling techniques and glossy prospectus of Universities, where the reality is that there will always be more indians than chiefs (well it will return to that natural balance in short order be assured), so being a skilled indian in a job that can’t be replaced by a robot makes a lot more sense than what is happening now.
But let us imagine youngsters were not raised with high expectations, and flooded into the manual trades. Then, like I say, the bottom would fall out of the manual trades again because of the abundance of people looking to do those jobs.
The majority of people cannot beat the market average, and those who are exploiting workers are not doing so simply so that those workers can later exploit them. Belief in the market mechanism and it’s ability to project the hardest workers to the top is, itself, a form of pyramid scheme.
I agree that not everybody can be a chief. Not everyone is even suited to it. But because being a chief is the only thing in which there is any money, and there is no money in being an indian, that is why everyone is trying to be a chief and nobody is easily willing to be an indian.
It is not an unrealistic expectation for youngsters to expect to have a home, a stable income, probably a car (since outside city centres, where living costs are already higher, it is almost impossible to hold down a job and maintain a household nowadays without a car, especially if the household cannot support a full-time homemaker), a couple of kids, and some facility for support in later life, because these are the basic elements of sustainable life in our society.
The country is fast closing on £2 Trillion of national debt now and we are heading for a downturn that will dwarf (is that an allowed word these days
I agree. But the fundamental answer is for workers to claim a greater share for themselves of the fruits that are already available, and purge the inefficiencies of top-heavy management and overly-complex economic management, not imagine they can keep growing the pie so much larger than their parents, that the bosses might just about grant them a basic living as a mark of their admiration.
It’s also worth noting that debts do not necessarily have to be repaid - they can simply be zeroed and thus represent a one-way transfer instead. The bankers, after all, did not repay any profits or incomes derived from activity that turned out to have been unproductive, and nobody is morally obligated to repay wholly disproportionate debts to those whose reasons for lending were not based in moral obligations.
jimknaggs8:
I only drive to supplement my studies and I’ve gone back to uni to study psychology.
Don’t for one minute longer think that’s any better.
I also went to uni aged 30 to study psychology, and graduated 4 years later with a 1st class. Yet here I am aged 40 still driving lorries. What happened? I saw and lived the brutal reality for psychology graduates, found higer education is mostly a scam, and realised lorry driving was a LOT less stressful, and better paid. It’s EXTREMELY competitive amongst psychology graduates. However, if you’re prepared to do a masters, and possibly a PhD, THEN work very hard for a decade, you might get £50-60k.
Also, if you hate current culture, with its political correctness, cultural-marxism, omnipresent feminism, and suppression of free specch, don’t go to uni to study psychology, as you’ll be indoctrinated to hate white scientific men.
Harry Monk:
I used to love the job back in the day, driving to Istanbul or Moscow or wherever, now it is just a means to an end, I work between September and March and save as much as I can, then go narrowboating in the Summer until the money runs out. No prizes for guessing which six months I prefer.Don’t do nights out any more, haven’t done one for over two years now. I work for an agency, and I know that’s not everybody’s cup of tea but it suits me as I while away the next 6-7 years until my old age pension kicks in (unless they put it back yet again
)
I passed my HGV test in 1986, I was 27. If I was 27 now there’s no way I would consider driving a truck for a living.
Why would you not
Your only working a few months a year and living your dream for the rest
Am I missing something
Plus seeing all of Europe
jimknaggs8:
the trucks are [zb] too, they don’t even have the decency to give us DAB radios or a USB port.
What are you driving a scammel?
somebody registers as a new member, resurrects an old thread, generally slags of drivers and claims they’re only doing the job to get their degree, and then doesn’t respond to the replies.
Haven’t we been here before?
Do you think this is their only user name?
muckles:
somebody registers as a new member, resurrects an old thread, generally slags of drivers and claims they’re only doing the job to get their degree, and then doesn’t respond to the replies.Haven’t we been here before?
Do you think this is their only user name?
It has not gone unnoticed
muckles:
somebody registers as a new member, resurrects an old thread, generally slags of drivers and claims they’re only doing the job to get their degree, and then doesn’t respond to the replies.Haven’t we been here before?
Do you think this is their only user name?
Grow up, its been like a day, what do you think i am some sad act journalist trying to figure out why truckers truck? Have any of the comments asked me a pertinent question? i slagged off the profession not the drivers. i’ve had my licence for ten years.
Wanna take your tin foil hat off and talk about the thread?